Doves soar with new album

Lost Souls (4/5 stars)
By LAURENCHOPLIN
Staff Writer

The crackling flames of inspiration are not the only fire to influence Doves, a Manchester-based trio who used to be dance combo Sub Sub until a fire destroyed their studio and home a few years ago. With the sober, rich epic pop of Lost Souls, the band's debut full-length album on Astralwerks, Doves has returneddifferent, yes, but arguably better.

The band hasn't entirely abandoned its intricate drum beats, but drummer Andy Williams' hypnotic rhythms melt casually into gauzy, nomadic pop songs, not dance numbers. The record stumbles gracefully through styles without attempting to establish a definitive sound. The title track sounds like a twisted merry-go-round melody, and the quiet stand-out "Firesuite" basks in complex guitar work and intricate atmospherics.

Lost Souls primarily follows in a similar path. The only straightforward rock song on Lost Souls is "Catch The Sun," but the delicately catchy tune still centers on an unconventionally warbling and effects-laden chorus. In fact, Jimi Goodwin's bleary vocals, treated much like a third instrument, are used mostly for texture. Smooth, rainbow-bubble melodies abound amid various spells of intense piano and mesmerizing guitar.

If it can be said that any band has risen from the ashes, Doves has. It would have been nice to see Sub Sub's next step as a dance group, but Lost Souls is a welcome evolution toward ambitious pop.

Kaleidoscope Superior (2.5/5 stars)
By JOSHZETUMER
Staff Writer

Want to know the recipe for the most bizarre recording of 2001? Mix four ounces of 311 with two jiggers acid jazz, shake well, adding three fingers of Stevie Wonder chord progressions and a pinch of Freddy Durst. After ingredients separate, pour into a highball glass and sprinkle with Creed-esque Christian pseudo-sensibility. Drink at own risk.

While Kaleidoscope Superior may not be as good as any of these single elements (with the obvious exception of Fred or Creed's Christianity) it does juxtapose seemingly polar musical ideas to create, if nothing else, a very interesting portrait. Oftentimes, Earthsuit will throw in drum and bass percussion over a jazz-oriented chord structure, while, at the same time using the 311 patented: one guy who kind-of-sort-of sings like a Jamaican dubmaster while another raps incomprehensible slogans that somehow revolve around the listener getting up offa his/her seat. This works well for the first track, which is strong and musically very engaging, but fails to recreate the same spirit when the album shies toward Earthsuit's mellower, Stevie Wonder inspired tunes.

You have to give the band credit; howeverthe record's production is stunning, and each song is very intricate and well constructed. Segments glued together in truly strange fashions often complement nicely, but that doesn't change the fact that most of them still kind of suck. Too often the elements just aren't catchy or melodically interesting enough to make the record worth more than a couple spins and a conclusive, "Oh. That was weird."

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 142, No. 40 (Tuesday, March 20, 2001), on page 10.